Swami Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of Puri, said: “Are we expected to merely sit outside and applaud when the prime minister installs the idol of Ram?"
Team Clarion
CHENNAI — Swami Nischalanand Saraswati Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of Puri, on Monday said the decision of four prominent shankaracharyas (religious guru) to skip the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is rooted in the deviation from established traditions during the installation of the idol in temple.
“The shankaracharyas uphold their own dignity. This is not about ego. Are we expected to merely sit outside and applaud when the prime minister installs the idol of Ram? The presence of a ‘secular’ government does not imply the obliteration of tradition,” he was quoted as saying by Asian News International (ANI).
Political parties, including the Congress, have claimed that the shankaracharyas have decided against attending the January 22 event after objecting to the consecration ceremony at an ‘incomplete temple’.
Turning down the invite for the event, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said that even our shankaracharyas will not be attending the Ram Mandir event which shows that the reason for not attending it is important.
“When they politicised the event and took decisions, our shankaracharyas, who are at the top of Sanatan Dharma and guide us, said that they will not be attending the event. This has become such an issue that all shankaracharyas are saying they will boycott this event. If the shankaracharyas are saying so, it has its own importance,” Gehlot said.
Delhi minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that BJP is trying to separate two-thirds of the country’s population from Ram by putting a political tag on the temple ceremony.
“There is a system and set of rituals to perform Pran Pratishtha. If this event is religious, then is it happening under the guidance of the shankaracharyas of the four Peeths? All four shankaracharyas have said clearly that the Pran Pratishtha of an incomplete temple cannot be done. If this event is not religious, then it is political,” he was quoted by ANI as saying.
